Convert FDS to AV

Understanding FDS and AV file formats

FDS files are associated with the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model developed by NIST for simulating fire-driven fluid flow. FDS files typically contain simulation input data or results, and are not standard multimedia or video files.

AV files, on the other hand, are less common and may refer to Audio Video Interleave (AVI) files, or sometimes to proprietary formats used by surveillance systems. If you are referring to standard video, AVI is the likely target format.

How to convert FDS to AV

Direct conversion from FDS simulation files to AV (AVI) video files is not natively supported, as FDS files are not video files. However, you can visualize FDS simulation results and record them as video using the following workflow:

1. Use Smokeview, the official visualization tool for FDS, to open and animate your FDS results.
2. While playing the simulation in Smokeview, use a screen recording software such as OBS Studio or Camtasia to capture the animation.
3. Save the recording in AVI format (or convert to AVI using a video converter if needed).

Recommended software for FDS to AV conversion

• Smokeview – Official FDS visualization tool (Download)
• OBS Studio – Free, open-source screen recorder (Download)
• Any Video Converter – For converting recorded video to AVI (Download)

Step-by-step conversion process

1. Open your FDS result in Smokeview.
2. Start OBS Studio and set up a screen capture for the Smokeview window.
3. Play the simulation in Smokeview and record the screen with OBS Studio.
4. Stop the recording and save the file. OBS Studio allows you to choose the output format, including AVI.
5. If your recording is not in AVI, use Any Video Converter to convert it: Add Video → Select Output Format (AVI) → Convert Now.

Summary

While there is no direct FDS to AV file converter, you can visualize FDS results and record them as AVI video using Smokeview and OBS Studio. This workflow is the most effective way to share FDS simulations as video files.